This is basically a football thing, but it’s worth reading all the same because it impacts the kind of stuff we do here at HardballTalk.

Mike Wise of the Washington Post tweeted some pure baloney about Ben Roethlisberger today and when he was busted on it, claimed that it was some grand kind of experiment designed to “test the accuracy of social media reporting.” In other words: watch those silly bloggers repeat my lies.

Florio nails it, though: while we do some original reporting of our own, places like PFT and HBT spend the bulk of their time sifting through the sports news of the day, passing it along to you with context, opinion and humor added. As part of that function, we have done our best to figure out which media outlets are reliable and which ones aren’t so you can be as sure that you’re getting good information (or at least as sure as anyone can be of such things).

While I understand that there are some in the traditional media who question the legitimacy of what we in the blogosphere do all day, for one of those outlets to just make stuff up and then have the nerve to turn around point at the blogs for their credulity in passing along the news is simply ridiculous.

Maybe this is all too inside-baseball for most folks, but there’s a larger conversation going on right now about the future of media. The end product of that conversation affects all of us as information consumers. To watch someone at the one of the most respected newspapers in the country pull something like this says a lot about what some people in the traditional media think about the value and seriousness of that conversation.

It’s ok Craig, you guys can sleep easy at night knowing that because traditional media fears change and won’t embrace it, that they are doomed to die. Just look at Blockbuster versus Netflix as a somewhat relevant example. Those failing to embrace the change will eventually be swept under the rug by it.
Like it or not, the new generation is slowly strangling the life out of the roots of the old.

See, John Stewart can essentially be called a blogger, only he gets national television cameras instead of a website. You can watch The Daily Show and be able to get all your National and Global news only you receive it in a way that makes it makes it more appealing, and in most cases less bullshit ridden. You, like Stewart, give us the [baseball] news and you just weed through the bullshit, ridiculousness and masterbatorial words and just give us the beef of the news, and the important part. You still through enough ridiculous news at us, but you let us know it is ridiculous, and why. This is why I, and others, prefer to read your baseball blog than Rosenthal, Heymen, etc etc. You give us the beef of the news and make it enjoyable for the Every-Man.

“we have done our best to figure out which media outlets are reliable and which ones aren’t so you can be as sure that you’re getting good information” …well I hope you pulled The Washington Post from this list a long time ago…they’re about as reliable as one of those unreliable things (Someone help me with this simile, please. I’m tired).

Craig,
You put a much better argument together than Florio’s ramblings. However, folks have to see the reporter’s side of the story too. Don’t get me wrong, I very much appreciate what you do as someone states above me here. The reporter’s side is that he/she creates this work and you make money by copying them (more or less).
I understand both sides and doubt their will be a happy middle ground reached. It is definitely the new age of information, but without those reporters you guys (and others) don’t have their stories, inside information, etc. Hell, Florio would still be practicing law, so he’s got to be making big coin.
Again, don’t get me wrong, it is because of sites like this one and profootball that I don’t have to sift through multiple websites, but I understand….
Maybe you guys could take some of those reporters out for dinner and cocktails and try to smooth this over?